Supervised satellite kiosk management system with combined local and remote data storage

ABSTRACT

A network based hypertext display system employing a supervisory computer interconnected with one or more information display units and one or more remote document servers via a network, such as the Internet. The supervisory computer controls the content displayed by the display units by transferring to each unit a control information file as well as hypertext document files which are locally stored in the display units. The control file determines the extent to which the display unit can access remotely stored information and provides additional information which is used to alter the presentation to the user. Stored control information is used to rewrite hypertext document such that certain links are disabled, and to suppress the appearance of visual cues associated with the displayed anchor which identifies selected links in the referencing document. Links and other information in local and remotely accessed documents are rewritten in accordance with commands created by a content developer using an interactive content authoring system. Means are employed for controlling the duration of a given user session in response to the material selected for display, the time of day, and user demographics. Locally stored data copied from original documents stored on remote servers is periodically validated and updated when the validation indicates that the original has been modified.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to electronic information display systems andmore particularly to network based information display system fordisplaying hypertext documents.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Kiosks equipped with touchscreens have proven to be a highly effectivemeans for conveying useful information to the public. In retail stores,for example, kiosks can provide directory information to help customersfind needed products while promoting featured items. Placed in corporatelobbies, showrooms or trade show booths, the kiosk can be an effectivesales tool, allowing the user to select text and graphical informationof particular interest. In malls, airport lobbies, community informationcenters, and other public areas, the kiosk can effectively answerquestions, guide visitors to desired locations, and publicize theproducts and services offered by the kiosk's sponsors.

Because kiosks can be readily implemented with inexpensive personalcomputers and touchscreen monitors, the principal cost of a typicalkiosk-based information system is incurred in designing and implementingthe software which generates the desired interactive displays. Thisexpense typically grows as the displays are continually altered toreflect new information.

Interactive displays which are closely similar is style and content tothose needed for kiosk systems are now being created in large quantitiesby businesses seeking the exposure offered by the World Wide Web, theInternet system of interlinked hypertext documents. Businesses,institutions and individuals are presenting a rapidly increasing volumeof promotional, tutorial, entertainment, and reference information oninteractive "web pages made" and available to any computer havingstandard web browsing software and an Internet service connection.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to facilitate the programming,monitoring and control of one or more information display units whichare remotely located from a supervisory computer which provides thecontent for and monitors the operation of the display units overtelecommunication pathways.

In accordance with the invention, each information display unit isprovided with its own processor and display screen which preferablytakes the form of a touch screen capable of accepting selections from auser, as well as local storage means for persistently storing programs,hypertext documents to be displayed, and control information. Each suchdisplay unit is further provided with communications facilities whichprovide a file transfer pathway to a remote supervisory computer which,along with other server computers made available by the communicationsfacilities, may remotely store displayable information in the form ofhypertext documents, executable applets, imbedded image data, andrelated files. Control processing means executing on display unitprocessor responds to user selections to access displayable documentsstored on both the local storage means and provided via thecommunications facility from one or more identified remote servers.

As contemplated by the invention, a control information file transferredfrom a supervisory computer to each display unit identifies thosedocuments which are locally stored copies of original documents storedin remote servers, together with the record location identifier forthose original documents. The display unit processor further comprisesrequest processing means for redirecting display requests which identifysuch remotely stored documents such that the request is satisfied by thelocally stored copy. Validation means, operating either at thesupervisory computer or at the display unit, verify the integrity of thelocally stored copies by comparing attributes of those stored copiesagainst data describing the originals retrieved from the supervisorycomputer or remote servers, and performs a transfer of modifiedinformation from the remote location into local storage whenever thevalidation comparison indicates a need to update the stored data. Thevalidation means preferably comprises means for cyclically scanning theentries in the control information file to identify locally stored filesand the locations of their remote counterparts, together with entriesindicating the time when the locally stored file was created and thetime when the locally stored file was last validated, and meansresponsive to idle conditions at the display terminal for performingvalidation testing and update transfers when the display terminal is notin use.

As further contemplated by the invention, each display unit includesmeans for forming a record of the information requested by users at eachdisplay unit and for transferring this record from the display unit tothe supervisory processor. Each entry in the record preferablyidentifies a particular document displayed, the time when thatparticular document was displayed, and the identity of the user.

As further contemplated by the invention, the information to which eachdisplay unit permitted access is defined by the combination of thelocally stored data and access control information which is transferredto the display unit from an authoring station to control the contentmade available at the display unit.

These and other objects and features of the invention will become moreapparent through a consideration of the following detailed descriptionof a preferred embodiment of the invention. In the course of thisdescription, frequent reference will be made to the attached drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a illustration of the principal components used to implement aprogrammable, interactive HTML display kiosk system embodying theinvention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the principal components of a controlledaccess HTML display system employed to implement an embodiment of thekiosk unit employing the invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the transitiondisplay mechanism used in the kiosk unit;

FIG. 4 depicts the on-screen appearance of a dialog box used tointeractively obtain information for controlling the operation ofhypertext links found in HTML pages;

FIG. 5 shows the on-screen appearance of a dialog box used to obtaininformation defining the manner in which text information found in anHTML document is automatically rewritten to implement the invention;

FIG. 6 illustrates the on-screen appearance of a dialog box employed tointeractively obtain control information which defines or redefineslinks appearing in displayed hypertext documents;

FIG. 7 is a flow chart which illustrates the manner in which informationsupplied by the dialog box of FIG. 4 is utilized by the invention; and

FIG. 8 is a flow chart which depicts a routine for utilizing informationsupplied by means of the dialog boxes of FIGS. 5 and 6;

FIG. 9 is a flow chart illustrating a mechanism for automating a contentdevelopment session during which the information which may be accessedby a kiosk user is defined;

FIG. 10 shows the on-screen appearance of a dialog box used to acceptinformation defining the manner in which the duration of an individualuser session is limited based upon the character of the documentsselected for viewing, the time of day, and information characterizingthe particular user;

FIG. 11 is a flow chart describing a routine for limiting the durationof a given user session in response to a particular document beingviewed and other information provided by the dialog box of FIG. 10 andfor recording usage data;

FIG. 12 is a flow chart illustrating the manner in which the displayunit exchanges information with an authoring computer which provides itsoriginal content, and with a supervisory computer which receivesinformation describing the operation of the display unit; and

FIG. 13 is a flow chart which describes the manner in which the lookuptable which relates local storage URL's to the original remote URL ofthe stored document is used to translate URL requests and to update thestored files periodically to match the originating files.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

System Overview

As seen in FIG. 1, an interactive computer display kiosk 10 whichimplements the invention consists of a kiosk cabinet within which apersonal computer 11 and a touchscreen monitor 12 are mounted. Thepersonal computer 11 is connected via a modem 14 and dial-up or leasedtelephone lines 15 to a remotely located computer 20 which provides aconventional serial data SLIPP or PPP modem link to the Internetservice. The remote computer 20 also operates as a World Wide Web serverand is connected via high speed Internet TCP/IP Internet network lines35 to other computers on the Internet, such as the second web servercomputer seen at 25. The servers 20 and 25 provide access to storedinformation to connected client computers such as the kiosk 10 and apersonal computer 30 which is also connected via a modem SLIPP/PPPconnection over the telephone lines 15 to computer 20. The modem 14provides data communications via the telephone SLIPP/PPP lines 15 whilea modem 45 similarly provides data communications for the personalcomputer 30.

The personal computer 11 includes its own local magnetic disk drive forpersistent mass storage. The computer 30 may be used as an authoringsite at which the content accessible by the kiosk computer 11 is definedand from which displayable data and control information may betransferred to the kiosk computer 11. A conventional modem-to-modemconnection may be established between the modem 14 attached to kioskcomputer 11 and the modem 45 attached to the remote personal computer 30such that direct file transfers can be made between the computer 30 andthe kiosk 10 using a conventional dial-up modem connection via thetelephone lines 15. To permit such transfers, the kiosk personalcomputer 11 may be programmed to place the modem 14 in auto-answer modewhen the kiosk 10 is not being used as a web client, enabling thecomputer 30 to use its modem 45 to directly dial the modem 45 toestablish a file transfer connection for storing or modifying programsand data stored at the kiosk 10. Alternatively, file transfers betweenthe authoring computer 30 and the kiosk computer 11 may be accomplishedover the SLIPP/PPP Internet connection using HTTP or FTP file transfers.

As discussed later, computer 11 in kiosk 10 stores hypertext browsingand control programs as indicated at 60, one or more files of accesscontrol data as indicated at 70, and locally stored hypertext documentsindicated generally at 80 which are displayed on the touchscreen 12 inthe kiosk 10. The programs 60, control data files 70, and thedisplayable hypertext data 80 may be periodically updated from time totime by transferring information from the authoring computer 30 to thekiosk computer 11.

The kiosk programs 60 include conventional web page browsing softwaresuch as: the NCSA Mosaic browser available from the National Center forSupercomputing Applications (Software Development Group), Champaign,Ill.; Spyglass Mosaic offered by Spyglass, Inc, Naperville, Ill.;Netscape Navigator marketed by Netscape Communications Corp., MountainView, Calif.; and Internet Explorer offered by Microsoft Corporation,Redmond, Wash. In general, these web browsers retrieve and displayhypertext documents (web pages) written in standard Hypertext MarkupLanguage (HTML).

HTML documents take the form of conventional ASCII text files whichinclude imbedded tags which format the text for display presentation andprovide links to graphics files containing images which may be imbeddedin the documents, as well as links to other web pages to which hypertextjumps may be made. Linked files and documents are identified within theimbedded tags in a predetermined Uniform Record Locator (URL) formatwhich includes the identification of the communications protocol used(including conventional and secure hypertext protocols respectively,File Transfer Protocol or FTP, etc.), the identification of a particularserver computer which stores the referenced file, and the directory andfile name of the file itself on the designated server. Hypertextdocuments and linked files which are stored locally in mass storage anddirectly accessible by the running browser program may also bedesignated by a URL and interactively displayed in the same way that thebrowser displays web pages available from remote servers through theInternet. Extensive information describing HTML, the World Wide Web, andthe Hypertext Transport Protocol/Internet Protocol is available in thepublished literature. See, for example, World Wide Web Bible by BryanPfaffenberger, MIS:Press, ISBN 1-55828-410-9 (1995); Netscape and HTMLExplorer by Urban A. LeJeune, Coriolis Group, ISBN 1-883577-57-1 (1995);and Programming WinSock by Arthur Dumas, Sams, ISBN 0-672-30594-1 (1994)which describes the WinSock Library, one of several Windows OpenServices Architecture (WOSA) standards being used to add TCP/IPconnectivity to applications.

As seen in the illustration of FIG. 1, the hypertext documents storedlocally on the hard disk of the kiosk computer 11 preferably includes anattract page 81 which, as illustrated, might contains imbedded hypertextlinks LINK1 AND LINK2 to other locally stored pages 82 and 83respectively, as well as LINK3 to a home page 90 stored by the webserver computer 20, and LINK4 to a further web page 95 stored on the webserver computer 25. By touching the touchscreen 82 at the position wherehighlighted text, or a graphic, which visually represents the linkedsubject matter appears, the kiosk user can request the display of thelinked information, which itself typically contains links to other webpages, and so on.

Using the principles of the invention, the kiosk proprietor may limitthe kiosk user's access to authorized pages only. These constraints areprovided by access control programs included in the set of programs 60stored on the hard drive of the kiosk computer 11 which are responsiveto information stored in the control data files 70 also stored incomputer 11. The access control programs analyze and rewrite the textfound in accessed HTML pages before those pages are displayed andperform predetermined functions defined by stored access controlinformation when the user activates selected links.

The access control information itself may be conveniently created usingthe remote authoring computer 30 by browsing a combination of locallystored hypertext documents and remote web pages while respondingappropriately to requests for access control information which isgenerated during an interactive development session. After the controlinformation and the locally stored hypertext documents are created atthe authoring computer 30, both may be uploaded to one or more kioskcomputers, such as kiosk computer 11, using a conventional modem dialupfile transfer or transfers over the Internet as noted above.

The local storage of displayable information supplements and should bedistinguished from the caching operations performed by conventional webbrowsing and proxy server software. Such caching systems typically storecopies of information accessed over the Internet in local disk storageuntil a cache size limit is reached, and then continue to saveadditional data by overwriting the least recently accessed data. Becausea given item of data may be altered at anytime at its origin, thesecaching schemes typically retrieve data from the cache only after theoriginating server verifies that the desired data has not been modifiedsince it was originally placed in the local cache. For example, theNetscape Proxy Server marketed by Netscape Communications Corp.,Mountain View, Calif. combines the ability to cache data accessed fromthe network using "if modified since" checking with a high-level accesscontrol to prohibit access to documents having a specified URL for allor specified hosts.

In accordance with the present invention, such a caching mechanism isnot required and not burdened with information which the authoringcomputer 30 designates for storage as the original copy, and no accessto an originating server is required. The performance of the displayunit, such as the kiosk computer 11, is accordingly enhanced by storinga significant portion of the content locally and only requiring a slowernetwork access to be performed for displayed information of thefollowing kinds:

(1) information which changes so frequently that the transmission ofupdates under the control of the authoring computer would beinefficient, for example: weather data from a news source which includesweather map data which is updated every few minutes;

(2) information which occupies a significant amount of space and/orcontains items which are individually accessed only infrequently, forexample: individual topics in an online encyclopedia which, because ofimbedded graphics and the like, would be time-consuming to transfer andwhich would consume a large amount of local storage capacity.

To the extent that information is accessed by the display unit from thenetwork, it may be cached in the usual way to eliminate the need toaccess information which has not been altered by the originating serversince the last cache storage was performed.

In the description to follow, attention will first be directed to theoperation of the access control mechanism, including the browser, theaccess control programs, and the stored access control data, as thekiosk user interactively operates the browser. Attention will then bedirected to the mechanism for interactively creating those accesscontrol data structures which limit and control the user's access toinformation.

Access Control Mechanism

The operation of the user access control mechanism is illustratedgenerally in FIG. 2 of the drawings. Actions are initiated when thekiosk user touches a displayed link anchor on the kiosk touchscreen asdepicted at 103 in FIG. 2. The resulting touchscreen signal 105 isprocessed by the executing web browser program 107 which responds byissuing a request 109 for the retrieval of displayable data identifiedby a particular URL.

The request 109 is processed by an access control mechanism indicatedgenerally at 110 which includes a mechanism 113 for comparing the URL inrequest 109 with URLs in transition list 111. If the requested URLspecified in request 109 is found in the list 111, a transition displaypage is sent to the web browser 107 while the originally requested URLis concurrently sent to the access mechanism 12. This transition displaymechanism 113, described in more detail later in connection with FIG.13, provides a mechanism for displaying one or more display pages to theuser before the information identified by the requested URL isdisplayed.

The access mechanism 120, like the web browser program 107, isconventional. URL's which translate into local disk addresses, such as:

    "file:C:\WINDOWS\Desktop\HTML\HOME.HTM"

are accessed directly from local storage, whereas URL's which identifyinformation stored on remote servers, such as:

    http://www.micotouch.com/products/rj234.html/"

are retrieved by the kiosk computer utilizing TCP/IP software, such asthe dynamic link library WINSOCK.DLL for Windows 3.1 or WSOCK32.DLLsupplied by Microsoft with Windows 95. Depending on the content of theURL in the request 114, the linked data specified by the URL Request 114is obtained either from the kiosk's local storage system, illustrated bylocal disk 122 in FIG. 2, or by transmitting an http/ip Internet messagerequesting the information via a modem 124 and SLIP/PPP connection 126to the remote Internet web server (not shown) which holds the requestedinformation. If the access request is successfully satisfied, the accessmechanism 120 returns the requested data in the form of an HTMLdocument, graphical image, FTP file, or other displayable dataidentified by the URL in the request 114; otherwise, the accessmechanism returns an appropriate error message which is displayed toindicate to the kiosk user that the access did not succeed.

Rewriting Incoming HTML Pages

When the returned displayable data is an HTML document, the text of thatdocument is processed by the access control mechanism 110 which includesa mechanism 130 for rewriting the HTML page in accordance withinformation in a string list data structure 133. The string list 133typically contains a collection of text replacement request commandseach including of a designated target string and a designatedreplacement string. Whenever one of the target strings in the structure133 is found within the text of an incoming HTML document, that targetstring is replaced by the associated replacement string before theincoming HTML document is displayed by the web browser program 107.

The HIML text replacement function performed at 130 in the accesscontrol mechanism 110 may be used to provide a number or usefulfunctions. In addition to rewriting displayable text, the rewritingmechanism 130 may add new links to additional information which thekiosk owner may wish to communicate to the kiosk user, may delete linksto information which should be hidden to the user, or may substitutereplacement links. Unlike the URL transition display generatingmechanism 113, which is capable of inserting one or more display pagesbefore a page designated by the URL request 109, the mechanism 130 maybe used to substitute a different target page for the page specified bya link imbedded in an incoming HTML document, and may also be used toeliminate the highlighting of, or rewrite, the displayed anchor textwhich is associated with the linked URL in the HTML page. The stringlist 133 includes a collection of target+replacement string pairs. Themechanism 130 searches the HTML page fetched by the access mechanism120, searching for a match to each of the target strings, and when foundsubstitutes the replacement string for the target string.

More specifically, each command stored in the string list 133 takes theform expressed by the following Pascal record definition:

    ______________________________________                                        Replacement.sub.-- Command = record                                           Target.sub.-- Page, Target, Replacement: pchar;                               Location: Longint;                                                            Flag: word                                                                    End;                                                                          ______________________________________                                    

The Target₋₋ Page, Target and Replacement fields each hold pointers tonull-terminated strings (character arrays). The Location field is 32-bitinteger which holds the position at which the replacement string is tobe inserted (when Target is a null pointer). The Flag field holdsboolean flag bits having the following significance when true:

    ______________________________________                                        Search.sub.-- Normal:                                                                    Search for Target string in normal (non-anchor)                               displayable text;                                                  Search.sub.-- Anchor:                                                                    Search for Target string in displayable anchor text;               Search.sub.-- URL:                                                                       Search for Target string in URL definition                                    within anchor tags;                                                Case.sub.-- Sensitive:                                                                   Apply case sensitivity to search for Target;                       Disable.sub.-- Pagewide:                                                                 Disable all links on Target.sub.-- Page;                           ______________________________________                                    

The versatility of the text replacement mechanism 130 is illustrated bythe following example replacement commands. For each example, assumethat an incoming hypertext document received at the HTML rewritemechanism 130 from the access mechanism 120 includes an imbedded "anchortag" reading:

    <A HREF="http://www.main.com/netspot/toc.html">Table of Contents<\A>

Such a tag would be displayed by the browser as the highlighted anchortext "Table of Contents" which, when touched by the kiosk user, wouldresult in a generated request to retrieve and display the HTML documentfile designated by the Uniform Record Locator (URL):

    "http://www.main.com/Internet/toc.html".

This URL identifies a file named "toc.html" in the "netspot" directoryof the web server computer named "mentum" which is available over theInternet using the hypertext transport protocol as indicated by theprefix "http".

EXAMPLE 1

If the string list 133 contains the following Target and Replacementfields:

Target: "http://www.main.com/netspot/toc.html"

Replacement: "file:c://newdir/newtoc.htm"

where the replacement string is a new URL specifying a file named"toc.htm" on the kiosk computer's disk storage directory "newdir", theeffect would be to change the anchor tag in the HTML text such that theanchor text "Table of Contents" is unchanged and continues to behighlighted but, when touched, the locally stored file newtoc.htm wouldbe retrieved by the access unit 120 and displayed instead of the file onthe remote server originally specified.

EXAMPLE 2

Target: <A HREF="http.//www.main.com/netspot/toc.html">Table ofContents<\A>

Replacement: "Table of Contents"

This replacement command removes the associated link and thehighlighting from the displayed text "Table of Contents".

EXAMPLE 3

Target: "Patent Office"

Replacement: "<A HREF="http://www.uspto.gov/">Patent Office<\A>"

This command rewrites each occurrence of the string "Patent Office" suchthat web browser 107 highlights the string as being an anchor text andprovides a link to a publicly available home page maintained by the U.S.Patent Office whenever the anchor text is touched by the kiosk user.

EXAMPLE 4

Target₋₋ Page: http://www.ajax.com/sale.html/

Target: "<Head>

Replacement: "<Head><META HTTP-EQUIV=REFRESH CONTENT="12;URL=file:c:\newdir\resale.htm">

This example, unlike the first three, limits the operation of thecommand to a designated target page and causes a <META . . . > elementto be inserted in the document header. A Meta element is a standard HTML3.0 element for simulating HTTP response headers in HTML documentswhich, in the example above, operates as a "client pull" dynamic HTMLdocument loader. As a consequence, the inserted Meta tag causes thetarget page to be displayed for 12 seconds, at which time the browserautomatically issues a URL request to replace the displayed target pagewith a page on the local hard drive specified by the content field ofthe inserted Meta tag.

EXAMPLE 5

Target₋₋ Page: http://www.ajax.com/sale.html/

Location: 1243

Replacement: "<IMG SRC="logo.jpg" ALIGN=BOTTOM>"

This command places the replacement string at character position 1243 inthe HTML document designated by the URL given in the target page fieldof the command. The effect in this case is the insertion into the pageof a graphical JPEG image designated by the relative source filedesignation "logo.jpg" in the replacement string. Note that the targetlocation value identifies a position in the original incoming HTML page,before replacement commands have been employed to rewrite the text.

EXAMPLE 6

Target₋₋ Page: http://www.quigley.hotlinks.html/

Flags: Disable₋₋ Pagewide=true;

This command is created when all links from Target₋₋ Page are to beautomatically disabled by replacing all link tags with replacement textwhich consists of the anchor information only.

Adding Insertion Pages

The transition control list 111 seen in FIG. 2 also consists of a seriesof structured records each of which takes the form expressed by thefollowing Pascal record definition:

    ______________________________________                                                Transition.sub.-- Command = record                                            Trailing, Leading: pchar;                                                     Showtime: integer;                                                            End;                                                                  ______________________________________                                    

The Trailing and Leading fields contain pointers to null-terminatedstrings which contain the URL's of the trailing and leading pages ofpage transition, respectively. The transition display mechanism 113 seenin FIG. 2 searches the transition control list to determine if thereceived URL request 109 contains a URL which matches a trailing URL onthe list 111. If so, the page identified by the URL in the Leading fieldof the transition command is displayed first, and the duration of thisdisplay is specified the value contained in the Showtime field.

The operation of the transition display mechanism 113 is illustrated inmore detail by the flowchart presented in FIG. 3. The transition controlroutine is executed by the kiosk computer during an interactive usersession each time the user touches the kiosk touchscreen to cause thebrowsing program to generate a hypertext link request seen in FIG. 2 asURL request 109. When the transition display mechanism 113 receives thatrequest, the routine shown in FIG. 3 is executed beginning at the entrypoint 151.

At 152, the transition list seen at 111 in FIG. 2 is searched. If theURL in the received URL request is found in the Trailing field of atransition command record, that record is tested at 152 to determinewhether the Leading field contains a null pointer.

If no leading URL is specified, the routine selects a display page froma collection of available pages as seen at 154. This selection may bemade randomly from a collection of pages placed in a predetermineddirectory on the kiosk computer's local hard drive (seen at 122 in FIG.2), or by cycling through a list of insertable display page URLs. If theLeading field of the transition command contains a specific URL, thatURL is included at 156 in the outgoing URL http request seen at 114 inFIG. 2.

Whether quasi-randomly selected at 154 or specifically identified asindicated at 156, the value indicating that the requested URL identifiesan insertion page, and a pointer to the satisfied transition command inlist 111, are passed to the HTML rewrite routine 130 as indicated at 160in FIG. 2. The insertion page retrieved by the access mechanism 120 isthen rewritten (as illustrated by Example 4 above to place a client pull<META> element in the header of the leading page which identifies thetrailing page URL and the desired display duration (Showtime) in theinserted <META> element.

Alternatively, a server-push mechanism may be used to insert a sequenceof one or more leading pages prior to the trailing page identified inthe original link request. Using the server push mechanism, the browser107 seen in FIG. 2 is supplied with the page sequence using the HTTPMIME protocol and the duration of each page is determined by the HTMLrewrite mechanism 130 which maintains an open connection to the browser107, enabling replacement pages to be sequentially placed on the displayscreen under control of the mechanism 130. Current versions of theNetscape Navigator and Internet Explorer web browsing programs supportdynamic document loading using both linked client pull <META> metaelements or a server pushed sequence of HTTP MIME-partitioned pages.

In normal operation, the HTML rewrite unit 130 need only operate onthose HTML documents which are accessed from the network, since locallystored HTML documents may be stored in rewritten form. In one instance,however, locally stored HTML documents should also be modifieddynamically. This occurs when an attempt to access a given document froma remote server fails because the document described in link containedin a locally stored document is no longer available from the remoteserver. In that case, to avoid encouraging the user to attempt to accessa remote document that is no longer available, the outdated link tag inthe locally stored document should be rewritten to display the anchorinformation only and eliminate the link as illustrated by the stringlist command of Example 2 described earlier. This automatic suppressionof the display of visual cues in connection with links that are nolonger operative is particularly advantageous when the display unit isused by inexperienced users who may be confused by error messagesreturned by the remote server when requested documents are no longeravailable.

Interactive Access Control Development

As noted earlier, the creation of the software content of an effectiveinteractive kiosk display system is typically quite costly. The abilityto utilize existing web pages and HTML browsing software cansignificantly reduce these costs, so long as suitable safeguards areincorporated to prevent the user from accessing undesired web pages andto affirmatively guide the user's attention to desired information. Thecreation of such an access control mechanism may also be made aninteractive process which may be performed by kiosk proprietors withlittle or no training in either programming or HTML page creation.

From the kiosk owner's perspective, the development process merelyrequires that the HTML pages being made available to the user be browsedto activate links to other pages, supplying link control informationwhen requested by the development program, and adding or editing linksand text to the pages which are presented. An introductory explanationof the interactive development process is best illustrated by FIGS. 4-6of the drawings, each of which illustrates the content of a dialog boxpresented to the developer during the course of a development session.

During the development session, the developer operates developmentsoftware, to be discussed later, which operates as a conventional webbrowser. FIG. 4 shows a Link Handling dialog box which is displayed eachtime the developer activates a link imbedded in the currently displayeddocument to produce a URL request. The Link Handling dialog box containsa "Target" area for the entry of information specifying the handling ofthe linking function, and a "Transition Display" area for the entry ofinformation specifying the manner in which insertion pages are to bedisplayed prior to the requested information.

In the "Target" area of the Link Handling dialog box seen in FIG. 4, thefully qualified URL of the HTML page to be displayed next is shown at201 at the left of a preview button 203. By pressing the button 203, thedeveloper may view (but not link from) the document identified by theURL displayed at 201. The developer may select among the options OK,Prevent and Substitute made available by the radio buttons 205.

If "Prevent" is selected using radio buttons 205, the remaining controlson the display are greyed to indicate they are disabled, with theexception of the preview button and the radio buttons at 207 which allowthe developer to specify whether the choices made on the dialog box areto be applicable to all occurrences of links to this target URL, or onlyto the particular link whose activation caused the Link Handling dialogbox to be displayed. The "Prevent" option is implemented by placing areplacement command record in the string list 133 which identifies theTarget URL, sets the boolean values Search₋₋ URL to true, Search₋₋Anchor to false, Search₋₋ Normal to false and Case₋₋ Sensitive to false.Target₋₋ Page and Replacement both contain null strings, unless radiobuttons 207 are set to indicate that only this specific link is to bedisabled, in which case Target₋₋ Page and Location are set to specifythe page and character location respectively of the beginning of thelink to be disabled.

If the radio buttons 205 are set to indicate that a different targetshould be substituted for the target whose URL is shown at 201, the"Substitute" button is selected which enables a drop-down edit box 211and browse button 213. When the drop-down button at the right-hand endof drop-down edit box 211 is depressed, the URL's of the locally storedpages are displayed, enabling one files of those to be directly.Alternatively, the URL of a local or remote page may be entered into theedit box 211 or the browse button 213 depressed to display aconventional filename browsing dialog box for locating desired filesanywhere on the local hard drive. When "Substitute" is selected, theoriginally requested URL display at 201 is greyed and the preview button203 when pressed displays the substitute file whose URL is shown in theedit box 211. The substitution of a different link is implemented byplacing a replacement record in the string list 133 which uses theTarget and/or Location fields, as well as the Search₋₋ URL flag, toidentify the link to be modified, and places the new target's URL in thereplacement field. The replacement command of Example 1 described abovemay be generated by selecting the "Substitute" option in Link Handlingdialog box of FIG. 4.

The handling of the target page identified at 201 may be further definedusing the dialog box of FIG. 4 by the checking checkbox 215 labeled"Link No Further" to disable all of the links on the target page in themanner previously discussed in connection with the string replacementcommand Example 6.

The target area of the dialog box of FIG. 4 also includes a checkbox 214which can be checked by the developer to indicate that a remote web pageshould be stored locally on the kiosk computer. In that event, a copy ismade of the page identified by the URL displayed at 201, along withcopies of all imbedded graphics identified by <IMG> tags. An entry isthen made in a locally stored lookup table to which the access controlunit 120 refers to convert link requests directed to the original remoteURL into requests directed to the new locally stored file. No rewritingof the links themselves is required. As discussed later in conjunctionwith FIG. 9, HTML pages which are stored locally, including those whichwere locally stored at the request of the developer, may be rewritten inaccordance with the stored string replacement commands on list 133 atthe conclusion of the development session, eliminating the need forperforming revisions during the browsing session. As previouslydiscussed, remotely stored information which is subject to frequent orunpredictable change, such as weather reports, price lists, newservices, etc., or which is quite voluminous and only infrequentlyaccessed, should normally not be locally stored but instead remotelyaccessed. The checkbox 214 is disabled (checked and greyed) when thetarget page specified by the URL displayed at 201 is already locallystored.

The target area of FIG. 4 also includes controls 216-218 which enablethe developer to assign a reward/penalty value to each target page. Eachtarget page is initially assigned a neutral default reward/penalty valueof zero, but may be assigned a value varying from a penalty of -10 to amaximum reward of +10. When a browsing session is initiated by the firstlink from the root attract page, the session-points-remaining value isset at a predetermined value determined by the user entries at 510 and512 in the dialog box seen in FIG. 10, discussed later. As the sessioncontinues, the access control system 110 decrements this value by at therate, for example, of 5 points per second for "neutral pages" butincreases the rate to 15 points per second for heavily penalized pages,whereas pages set to a reward value of +5 result in no change, andreward values of +10 actually cause the session-points-remaining valueto increase at the rate of 5 points per second. Whenever the accumulatedpoints reaches zero the session is terminated by displaying an insertpage reading "Your Time Has Expired. Next User Please", and returning tothe attract page.

The scrollbar control 216 with the slider 217 provides a convenientmechanism for setting the reward/penalty value as desired, indicating tothe user that viewing certain pages is to be encouraged while viewingother pages is to be discouraged. In this way, users who are viewingpages which the kiosk proprietor favors earn longer session times thatviewing disfavored pages.

When the developer actuates a link during the development session, theLink Handling dialog box seen in FIG. 4 also provides a mechanism forrequesting and identifying the display of a transition page prior to thedisplay of the target page specified in the target area as describedabove. The radio buttons allow the specify "None" to indicate that nopage is to be displayed prior to the target page; "Random" to specifythat an insert page is to be selected from the collection of availableinsert pages, and "Selected" to indicate that the particular pageentered into drop down edit box 223 is to be inserted. The drop downbutton at the right of edit box 223 causes the display of a drop downlist of all insert pages in the collection of available pages from whicha selection may be made. Alternatively, a URL may be entered directlyinto the edit box 223 or selected using a conventional filenameselection dialog box activated when the adjoining browse button 225 ispressed.

The duration of the inserted page may be set by entering a number in theedit box 230. This number is then placed in the <META> statement alongwith the insertion page name to control the dynamic loading of theoriginal target URL page after the display of the insertion page aspreviously described in connection with FIG. 3.

The dialog box seen if FIG. 5 is displayed whenever the user performs aright-button mouse click when the cursor is on a word or when displayedtext has been selected using a standard left-button-depressed textselection dragging operation. When a word or string is selected,depressing the right-hand mouse button produces a set of conventionaloptions (Copy, Cut, etc.) and the additional option "Replace" which,when chosen, displays the dialog box seen in FIG. 5 with the selectedword or text appearing as the default in the Find edit box 240. Usingthe check boxes at 241, 243, 245, and 247, the developer indicateswhether or not the string displayed in edit box 240 is to be replaced ona case sensitive basis, and whether it is to be replaced when found innormal displayed text, anchor text or in a URL, respectively. Thereplacement text, which may be lengthy, is entered into a memo box 248as seen in FIG. 5. The radio buttons 249 allow the developer to specifywhether all occurrences of the text in edit box 240 are to be rewrittenas indicated by the dialog box, or only the specific text which wasidentified when the dialog box was opened. The dialog box seen in FIG. 5can also be opened by menu selection, in which case the radio buttons249 are greyed and disabled. The replacement command Example 2 discussedabove may be produced using the String Replacement dialog box seen inFIG. 5.

By right-clicking the mouse on "white space" (e.g., a position betweenwords or images) of the currently displayed page, a pop-up menu isproduced which includes the entry "Insert Link" which, if chosen,displays the dialog box of FIG. 6. Alternatively, right clicking onexisting anchor text or image causes the pop-up menu to include theoption "Edit Link" which, if selected, causes the dialog box of FIG. 6to be presented with the included controls already filled in; that is,if anchor text was selected, that text appears in the memo box 251 andif an anchor image was selected, the S.C.=URL for that image appears ina drop down edit box 253. Likewise, the URL of the target of the link isdisplayed in a drop down edit box 257.

The data gathering functions provided by the dialog boxes seen in FIGS.4-6 of the drawings is further illustrated by the flow charts seen inFIGS. 7 and 8.

FIG. 7 illustrates the operation of the dialog box of FIG. 4. The dialogbox is displayed in response to the issuance of a linking request by thedevelopment system web browser as seen at 301 in FIG. 7. The radiobuttons 205 of FIG. 4 accept a selection within the decision box 303 inFIG. 7. If a substitution is selected, the developer supplies the URL ofthe new target at 305 using the edit box 211 seen in FIG. 4. Appropriateentries are then made into the string list seen at 133 in FIG. 133 asseen at 305, 307 and 309 in FIG. 7.

The lower portion of the flow chart seen in FIG. 7 illustrates theprocedure followed to utilize the entries in the transition displaysection of the dialog box seen in FIG. 4. The decision block 311 of FIG.7 accepts the selection made by the user using the radio buttons 221 ofFIG. 4. Based on the remaining data entered on in the transition displaysection of the dialog box, an appropriate record may be added to thetransition list 111 seen in FIG. 2 as indicated at 313, 315, 317 and 319in FIG. 7.

The flow chart seen in FIG. 8 illustrates the procedure followed toutilize the information entered in the dialog boxes shown in FIGS. 5 and6. As described earlier, right clicking the mouse on the displayed pagedisplays a pop-up menu which supplies the developer with the option ofreplacing displayed text or inserting a tag at the position in thedisplayed page indicated by the mouse click. If the mouse is clicked ona word or on a selected string which is not highlighted anchor text asdetermined at decision block 325, the dialog box of FIG. 5 is displayedto provide the information collected in steps 327-330 of FIG. 8.Alternatively, a menu selection can also invoke the display the dialogbox of FIG. 5 as indicated at 333. If the developer right clicks themouse on displayed anchor text, an anchor image, or on whitespace, thedialog box of FIG. 6 is displayed to obtain information descriptive of anew anchor as indicated at steps 341-343 in FIG. 8.

Automated Development Session

To insure that the developer does not overlook any links which may ormay not be left operative on pages presented to the kiosk user, it isadvantageous to automate the task of scanning each page for links andautomatically presenting those links to the developer who may then electthe treatment to be accorded each link. The automated developmentprocedure illustrated by the flow chart of FIG. 9 provides such amechanism.

The automated development session depicted in FIG. 9 begins with thedisplay of the kiosk's "attract page" which constitutes the root pagefor the hierarchy of pages which are associated by hypertext links. Theattract page, illustrated by the page 81 seen in FIG. 1, isadvantageously stored on the kiosk computer's local hard drive duringnormal use. In the absence of any activity by a user of the kiosk for apredetermined timeout duration, the kiosk computer automaticallyrestores the display of the attract page so that all users are presentedwith the same beginning point.

Display pages which are not linked directly or indirectly to the attractpage are not accessible to the kiosk user. The set of presentation pageswhich will be made available to the user is defined by the combinationof (1) the locally stored pages on the kiosk computer's hard drivelinked to the attract page; (2) remotely stored pages linked to thoselocally stored pages; and (3) other remote pages to which linking ispermitted from remotely stored pages by the access control information,including additional links, stored in the transition list 111 and thestring list 133 seen in FIG. 2. The development session, typicallycarried out by a computer such as the authoring computer 30 seen in FIG.1 which is remote from but in communication with the kiosk computer(s),accordingly consists of the steps of making available the locally storedpages, establishing a connection via the Internet (or a similarconnection) to one or more remote servers which store the remotelystored pages, and evaluating those available pages and the linksimbedded in each to develop the access control found in the two listsand to specify which pages accessed via the network are to be locallystored and which are to remain accessible only by a network access.

Thus, at entry point 401 seen in FIG. 9, the development session beginswith the root attract page being the current page undergoing evaluation.At step 402, each page is scanned for the presence of links at 403unless that page has been previously identified as being a page fromwhich no more further linking is to be permitted as previously explainedin connection the checkbox 214 shown in FIG. 4. If the linking is to beprohibited from all links on the current page, the page is processed at404 by posting to the string list 133 a replacement command recordhaving a Target₋₋ Page field set to the URL of the current page and theboolean flag bit Disable₋₋ Pagewide set to TRUE. As previously noted inconnection with the string replacement command Example 6, the HTMLrewrite mechanism 130 seen in FIG. 1 responds to this command byreplacing each the linking tag in an HTML being accessed with theimbedded anchor information alone, thereby disabling each link andremoving the highlighting or other visually linking cue which wouldotherwise be added by the browser to identify the presence of theselinks. Note that the command created at step 404 eliminates the need forthe user to individually enable or disable links on a page which maycontain large numbers of links.

When linking from the current page is permitted, each link is processedby the content developer as indicated at step 403-409 in FIG. 9. Thecurrent hypertext page is scanned, beginning at the start of thedocument, for the first (next) hypertext link to another page. If animbedded link is found, as indicated by the "Yes" result branch atdecision block 405, the link handling dialog box depicted in FIG. 4 (andthe detailed flowchart of FIG. 7) is displayed for a response by thedeveloper as seen at 407. As previously discussed, the link handlingdialog box permits the developer to preview the target page specified bythe detected link and to choose whether to accept (OK) the link, preventthe link from being activated, or substituting a link to a differentpage as indicated by decision block 409 in FIG. 9. In addition, as seenin the dialog box of FIG. 4, the content developer may specify whether agiven target page is to be locally stored if currently accessed from thenetwork, and whether further links from that page are to be disabled asa group (by checking checkbox 214 on FIG. 4) or individually processed.

If the developer elects to prevent an individual link by selectingeither "Prevent Here" or "Prevent Everywhere" using the radio buttons205, the string list 133 is updated as previously discussed inconnection with step 309 seen in FIG. 7, and a return is made to thepage scan step 403 to search for the next link on the current displaypage.

If the developer accepts the imbedded link, or substitutes a differentlink, the currently displayed page identification is pushed into asoftware stack as indicated at step 411, the newly specified targetbecomes the current display page as seen at step 413, and scanning ofthat the new current page is begun by returning to the scanning step403.

When there are no further links to evaluate on the current page, asindicated by the No branch from decision block 405, the user is giventhe opportunity at step 417 to modify the displayed text using thestring replacement dialog box of FIG. 5 as seen at step 419, which maybe activated at step 417 either by menu request or by right clicking ona word or selected text in the displayed document as previouslydiscussed. The replacement string specified in dialog box 5 is alsoevaluated at step 421 to determine if it contains a link to a hypertextpage and, if so, the identified link is evaluated in the usual fashionby returning control to the dialog box of FIG. 4 as indicated by branch420. Otherwise, the user is given the opportunity the enter furtherreplacement strings as indicated by branch 422.

In a similar fashion, as indicated at decision block 431, the user isalso given the opportunity to use a right mouse click to further edit anexisting link, or add an entirely new link, by right-clicking on whitespace or a link anchor as indicated at 325 and 341-343 of FIG. 8 toinvoke the link description dialog box of FIG. 6 as seen at step 432 ofFIG. 9. If the developer elects to define a new link, as indicated bythe yes branch 435 from decision block 433, control is returned to step407 to enable the dialog box of FIG. 4 to be used to add a transitiondisplay if desired. Otherwise, the display of the current page iscontinued such that the developer can add or modify additional links oradd additional string replacement commands.

When the user indicates that no additional editing of the current pageis required, and when all remaining hypertext links on the current pagehave been authorized, no further processing of the current page isrequired as indicated at branch 440, the page which contained the linkto the current page is popped from the stack to become the new currentpage as indicated at step 441. If the stack is empty, indicating thatall links from the attract page have been resolved, the developmentsession is concluded; otherwise, the page popped from the stack becomesthe new current page as indicated at step 413 and scanning of that pageresumes at step 403 which searches for the next unresolved link.

FIG. 10 of the drawings illustrates the on-screen appearance of thedialog used to obtain information from the user which may be employed tolimit the duration of a given user session while FIG. 11 is a flow chartwhich illustrates the manner in which this information is utilized tocontrol the session duration. The dialog box of FIG. 10 is displayed onrequest by the user, or automatically the beginning or end of eachdevelopment session, and includes the following controls: an edit box at510 which accepts a numerical quantity indicating the number of minuteseach session may continue before links to further pages are disabled byemploying the HTML rewrite mechanism seen at 130 in FIG. 2 to rewriteall link tags as anchor information alone; and an edit box 512 whichaccepts a numerical quantity indicating the number of minutes eachsession may continue before the session is mandatorily terminated byreturning the user to the home page, accomplished by utilizing thetransition display mechanism 133 of FIG. 2 to issue a URL request forthe home page.

Note that the URL request which forces the return to the home page maybe accompanied by a predecessor transition display page which displays awarning notice, e.g., "TIME EXPIRED. NEXT USER PLEASE.". In addition, tofurther discourage the current user from continuing to use the displayunit, the home page may require the mandatory completion of an HTUML"registration" form which requests identification data from a user, suchas name, mailing address, phone number, date of birth, etc. Thisdemographic data is then recorded and may be used to produce a userevaluation number. By way of example, the evaluation number may begenerated by a combination of the user's age and zip code, generating amaximum valuation number for adults living in a particular area and aminimum valuation number for children living far from the kiosklocation.

As illustrated at 514 in FIG. 10, the developer uses two list boxes todevelop session time adjustment profiles based on the time of day whenthe display unit is being displayed (left hand list box at 514) and theuser valuation number produced from the demographic data as notedearlier (the right hand list box at 514). In this way, session durationsgreater than the default values entered at 510 and 512 are allowed atthose times during the day when little usage is likely, and reducedsession times during the busiest hours. Similarly, using the adjustmentprofile recorded in the right hand list box at 514, adjustments to thesession times may be made based on the user valuation number. Changes toindividual entries in either the time-of-day adjustment profile in theleft list box at 512 or the user valuation profile in the right list boxat 512 are made by clicking on an individual item and changing theadjustment value in the spinner-driven edit box at 516.

Session Timing and Logging Mechanism

Session timing is accomplished by an interrupt or timer driven routineas illustrated in FIG. 11. Upon each occurrence of a system timeinterrupt, the routine is entered at 521 and a count value CNT isincremented. If CNT is evenly divisible by a value IC (with IC having avalue selected such that the routine beginning at 527 is entered every10 seconds, for example), a session count value is incremented (ordecremented) by PageValue at 527, incremented (or decremented) byUserValue at 529, and incremented or decremented by TimeValue at 531.The session count value SC is initialized to zero at the beginning ofevery new session and counts upward toward limit values LinkVal, whichestablishes a session duration threshold at which further linking isterminated, and EndVal, which establishes a session duration thresholdat which the session is terminated entirely. PageValue is a positive ornegative integer which adjusts the amount by which SC changes (upwardlyor downwardly) based upon the value entered by the user for the currentpage being viewed when that page was ranked using the controls 216-218in the dialog box seen in FIG. 4. UserValue is a positive or negativeinteger reflecting the weight given to the user valuation in the righthand list box 514 of FIG. 10, with the valuation number being derivedfrom the demographic data entered during user registration as discussedabove. Finally, the count SC is adjusted by TimeValue comprising thecombination of a fixed positive base value which reflects the passage oftime as adjusted by a time-of-day adjustment obtained by comparing thecurrent time of day with the time-of-day profile value entered by thedeveloper in the left hand list box 514. Together, PageValue, UserValueand TimeValue quantities provided by the developer control the rate atwhich SC advances toward the thresholds LinkVal and EndVal which are setby the developer's entries at 510 and 512 respectively as seen in FIG.10.

When SC is greater than LinkVal as determined at 533, the link disablingprocess in HTML rewrite mechanism 130 is turned ON as indicated at 536.If the session count value SC is also larger that EndVal as determinedat test 538, the session is terminated as indicated at 539.

The timer driven interrupt handling routine seen in FIG. 11 furtherincludes a mechanism for logging session usage. Each time the interruptcount CNT is divisible by the integer MC (which is selected such thatthe test at 525 is performed once per second, for example), a test isperformed at 525 to determine if the current page being displayed haschanged since the last test at 525, a determination made by comparingthe URL of the current page with the string LASTURL saved during thelast detected transition. If URL is not equal to LASTURL, an entry isappended to a log file consisting of records each comprising the newURL, the time of day at which the page designated by the URL was firstdisplayed, and an integer identifying the current user by specifing therecord number for that user in a file of registration recordsaccumulated for the user from CGI processing of the home pageregistration form. In this way, a log file is maintained from which theentire viewing history for each user may be reconstructed, the amount ofusage for each HTML document (total occurrences and average viewingtime), and data correlating the demographic data with the availablecontent. Such data is of particular value to the content developer sinceit enables the developer to identify pages which were of interest tousers, pages which were frequently accessed from the network and arehence candidates for local storage, etc. As noted earlier in connectionwith FIG. 1 of the drawings, this demographic and usage log data may betransmitted to the authoring computer by establishing a file transferconnection via a conventional modem-to-modem route over the dialuptelephone lines, of by using the Internet to perform an FTP or SMTPtransfer.

When the current URL is found at test 525 to be unchanged from LASTURL,a further test is performed at 540 to determine if the current timeexceeds LT, a time value saved at 526 when the current URL was firstdetected, by more than a idle time value Q. When Time>LT+Q, it isestablished that the current page has been on screen for more than timeQ with no user activity; consequently, since the display unit isapparently not being used, the session is ended by branching to 539 suchthat the attract (home) page is again displayed for viewing by the nextuser.

Information Exchange

The sequence of events which occur during the overall operation of adisplay unit, such as the kiosk 10 seen in FIG. 1, is depicted by theflow chart of FIG. 12.

Before the display unit is first operated, it must receive the locallystored displayable information files as well as the control structuresdeveloped as described in connection with FIG. 9 consisting of thestring list seen at 133 in FIG. 1, the transition list seen at 111 inFIG. 1, and the lookup table 112 seen if FIG. 1. As previously noted,these files are advantageously created using the interactive contentauthoring system described above at a remote authoring station, such asthe computer 30 seen in FIG. 1, and are transferred to the displayunit's local storage by a file transfer via the dialup telephone systemor by Internet FTP transfers as seen at step 571 in FIG. 12.

Each session begins, as indicated at 572, by initializing the CNT, SC,and LASTURL variables, by turning off the link disabling mechanism if ithas previously been turned ON as described in connection with step 536seen in FIG. 11, and by issuing a URL request for the display of thehome (attract) page. As previously noted, the home page or its necessarysuccessor advantageously includes a registration form which is directedto a local CGI (Common Gateway Interface) processing facility whichappends a record to a file of records containing user identificationinformation as indicated at 574 and 575 in FIG. 12.

During the course of the session, as each new page is accessed, the URLfor that page, its start time, and an identifying number specifying thecurrent user is appended to a log file of URL usage records as indicatedat 576 and 577 (previously describe in connection with step 526 in FIG.11). When the session ends by a timeout condition being detected asindicated at 578 (tests 538 and 540 in FIG. 11), if the display unit isdetermined to be idle at 580 (based on test 540 in FIG. 11), the displayunit makes use of the idle time to perform housekeeping informationtransfers as indicated at 590-596 in FIG. 12. First, a link isestablished to a supervisory computer (typically a host computer on theInternet which can receive information using FTP or SMTP transfers) at590 and thereafter the previously untransmitted portion of the usagerecord file is transmitted as indicated at 592 and the previouslyuntransmitted user records are transmitted at 594.

Then, as indicated at 596 in FIG. 12, the records in the lookup tableare processed sequentially by transmitting an "if modified since"message to the server holding each file designated by an origination URLin the lookup table. If it is determined that the file identified by theorigination URL has been modified since the locally stored copy wascreated (perhaps by the authoring computer) or last updated by theindividual display unit, the newly revised copy is accessed and storedafter being passed through the HTML rewrite unit 130 which alters thenewly stored local copy in accordance with the commands contained in thestring list 133.

The mechanism for updating stored files which originated from remotelocations is illustrated schematically in FIG. 13 of the drawings. Theleft hand flow chart in FIG. 13 illustrates the manner in which thelookup table, shown generally at 600, is used to redirect URL requestsfor remotely stored documents such that they instead retrieve locallystored copies. The right hand flow chart of FIG. 13 shows how the lookuptable 600 is employed to periodically update the stored information sothat it takes into account modifications to the files as they exist inthe remote servers.

Both of the routines illustrated in the flow charts of FIG. 4 areexecuted by the transition display control mechanism seen at 113 in FIG.2. The routines manipulate and respond to values stored in lookup table600 which consists of a plurality of entries, one for each remote filestored in local storage, each entry consisting of four fields: anoriginating URL field 603, a Chck field 604 storing a time stampindicated when the entry was last validated, a Mod field 605 storing atime stamp indicating when the corresponding local file was stored orlast updated, and a local URL field 607 specifying the local storagelocation of the local copy of the file.

When the control unit 113 receives a URL request which specifies aremotely located file, that file may have been locally stored at therequest of the content developer (using the Make Local checkbox 215 seenin FIG. 4), in which case the a copy of the file originally designatedby an originating URL is placed in local storage at a location specifiedby a local URL in field 607.

During the operation of the display unit, when the user activates a linkto generate a URL request seen at 109 in FIG. 2, the routine beginningat the entry point A at 609 is entered. If the URL contained in therequest specifies a remote URL, a search is conducted to determine ifthe requested remote URL is in the lookup table 600, indicating that alocal copy is available. To speed the search, the entries in lookuptable 600 are advantageously sorted into order by originating URL,permitting a binary search for a matching entry to be conducted asindicated at 611. If a match is found, the local URL from field 607 issubstituted for the URL in the request being processed as indicated at615 to redirect that request to the local copy. The lookup routineconcludes at exit point B indicated at 617 in FIG. 13.

When the display unit is idle and the routine at 596 is called asindicated in FIG. 12 to verify the integrity of the stored files againstthe remote originals, the routine beginning at entry point C as seen at619 in FIG. 13 is called. Each time the routine is entered, one of theentries pointed to by a counter value FP is checked. If the entrypointed to by FP contains a time stamp in the Chck field which differsfrom the current time by less than W as indicated by the test 621, nofurther updating is needed and the routine terminates at exit point Dseen at 622. The value of W specifies the frequency at which updating isperformed. Thus, if W is set to a value equivalent to 30 minutes, theentries in table 600 are checked until an entry is found that was checkless than 30 minutes previously.

The validation performed at 623 is performed by issuing anif-modified-since message to the server specified by the URL in theoriginating URL field 603 pointed to by FP, together with aspecification of the time stamp found in the Mod field 605 of thatentry. If the remote server responds with an indication that theoriginal file has been modified since the time indicated by Mod, themodified version is retrieved and stored locally, as indicated at 627,and the table entry pointed to by FP is updated with the current timevalue in both the Mod field 605 and the Chck field 604, as well asplacing the new local storage URL (if necessary) in field 607. If noupdating is necessary, the Chck field 604 alone receives the currenttime value. So long as the display unit continues to be idle asindicated by the test at 630, the testing of the validity of the entriesin table 600 can continue and FP is incremented at 629 to check the nextentry. If a user has activated the unit, the checking is terminated byexiting to point D at 622. The value FP is retained so that, when thevalidation routine is again entered at 619, checking will continue withthe oldest unchecked entry.

Note that, as an alternative to performing the validation routine at thedisplay unit as indicated at 596 in FIG. 12, a supervisory computer maybe used to periodically verify the integrity of the local files storedin the individual satellite display units by performing the validationroutine at intervals to identify files to be updated. When such testingreveals that a locally stored file should be updated, the supervisorycomputer may retrieve the modified file from the remote server and thentransfer that file to each satellite display unit when that unitestablishes contact with the supervisor; that is, instead of performingits own validation at 596, the satellite instead accepts the transfer ofidentified update files from the supervisor, eliminating the need forthe individual display units to independently test their local filesagainst the originals, and further eliminating the need for thesatellite computers to maintain the Chck and Mod fields in the lookuptable 600, these fields being maintained solely by the supervisorycomputer which performs the routine shown at the right in FIG. 13.

It is to be understood that the specific embodiment of the inventionwhich has been described above is merely illustrative of one applicationof the principles of the invention. Numerous modifications may be madeto the apparatus and methods described without departing from the truespirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for displaying hypertext informationcomprising, in combination,a supervisory computer for generating acontrol information file and one or more hypertext document files, andat least one display unit comprising, in combination: a local processor,a display screen, input means for accepting data requests from a user,communications facilities for receiving said control information fileand said hypertext document files from said supervisory computer, andlocal storage means for storing said control information file and saiddocument files, wherein said control information file includes at leastone item which specifies a selected document file in said local storagemeans and the remote location of an original file from which saidselected file was copied, and wherein said local processor includeslocal file validation means comprising: means responsive to said oneitem in said control information file for retrieving an attribute ofsaid original file from said remote location via communicationsfacilities, means for using said attribute to determine whether saidoriginal of said selected file has been modified, and means forreplacing said selected file with a new copy of said originaltransferred from said remote location via said telecommunicationsfacilities when said means for using said attribute indicates that saidoriginal has been modified.
 2. A system as set forth in claim 1 whereinsaid local processor further including means for detecting an idlecondition when no data requests are being received from a user and meansfor activating said local file validation means in response to adetected idle condition.
 3. A system as set forth in claim 1 whereinsaid local file validation means further comprises means for recordingthe prior time at which said selected file was last compared with saidattribute and means for inhibiting the operation of said means forretrieving an attribute of said original file when less than apredetermined period has elapsed since said prior time.
 4. A system asset forth in claim 1 wherein said control information file comprises aplurality of entries each of which associates the identification of aspecific one of said document files in said local storage means with theremote location specification of an original file from which saidspecific file was copied, and wherein said local processor furtherincludes means responsive to a data request from a user which includes aparticular remote location specification for displaying that documentfile in local storage which is associated by an entry in said controlinformation file with said particular remote location specification. 5.A system as set forth in claim 1 wherein said local processor furtherincludes means for recording each data request received from said userto form a log file and means for transferring said log file to saidsupervisory computer via said telecommunications facilities.
 6. A systemas set forth in claim 5 wherein said local processor further includesmeans for further recording the time when each of said data requests isreceived from said user in said log file.
 7. A system as set forth inclaim 5 wherein said local processor further includes means for furtherrecording the identity of each of said user in said log file.
 8. Asystem as set forth in claim 1 wherein said control information fileincludes data associating at least one of said document files with aremote record locator value specifying the location of an originaldocument in a remote computer from which said one document file wascopies, and wherein said local processor includes means responsive to adata request containing said remote record locator value for displayingsaid one document file from said local storage means.
 9. A system as setforth in claim 8 wherein said local processor further including meansfor detecting an idle condition when no data requests are being receivedfrom a user and means for activating said local file validation means inresponse to a detected idle condition.
 10. A system as set forth inclaim 8 wherein said local file validation means further comprises meansfor recording the prior time at which said selected file was lastcompared with said attribute and means for inhibiting the operation ofsaid means for retrieving an attribute of said original file when lessthan a predetermined period has elapsed since said prior time.
 11. Asystem as set forth in claim 8 wherein said local processor furtherincludes means for recording each data request received from said userto form a log file and means for transferring said log file to saidsupervisory computer via said telecommunications facilities.
 12. Asystem as set forth in claim 11 wherein said local processor furtherincludes means for further recording the time when each of said datarequests is received from said user in said log file.
 13. A system asset forth in claim 11 wherein said local processor further includesmeans for further recording the identity of each of said user in saidlog file.
 14. Display apparatus for displaying a sequence of items ofhypertext information from a set of such items designated by an author,the set of items including locally-stored copies of remotely-locatedoriginal hypertext items and the apparatus comprising:a link rewritespecification made in response to a first input from the author, thelink rewrite specification indicating at least links containing locationinformation for remotely-located original hypertext items that are to berewritten to contain location information for the locally-stored copies;a link rewriter which automatically rewrites links in hypertext itemsfetched for display as specified by the link rewrite specification; anda hypertext item fetcher which responds to activation of a link by auser of the display apparatus by fetching the hypertext item at thelocation specified by the link.
 15. Display apparatus for displaying asequence of items of hypertext information from a set of such itemsdesignated by an author, the set of items including locally-storedcopies of remotely-located original hypertext items and the apparatuscomprising:a local copy specification made in response to an input fromthe author, the local copy specification containing location informationfor remotely-located original hypertext items, location information forthe locally-stored copies, and consistency checking information fordetermining whether a locally-stored copy whose location information isin the local copy specification should be checked for consistency withits original hypertext item; and a consistency checker which checks theconsistency of the locally-stored copy when the consistency-checkinginformation so indicates, and if the locally-stored copy isinconsistent, replaces the locally-stored copy with a new copy of theremotely-located original.
 16. The display apparatus set forth in claim15 further comprising:a hypertext item fetcher which responds toactivation of a link by a user of the display apparatus by using thelocal copy specification to examine location information in theactivated link to determine whether there is a locally-stored copy ofthe hypertext item specified by the location information and if thereis, fetching the local copy instead of the remotely-located original.17. The display apparatus set forth in claim 15 further comprising:alink rewrite specification made in response to a first input from theauthor, the link rewrite specification indicating at least linkscontaining location information for remotely-located original hypertextitems that are to be rewritten to contain location information for thelocally-stored copies; a link rewriter which automatically rewriteslinks in hypertext items fetched for display as specified by the linkrewrite specification; and a hypertext item fetcher which responds toactivation of a link by a user of the display apparatus by fetching thehypertext item at the location specified by the link.
 18. The displayapparatus set forth in claim 17 wherein:the hypertext item fetcherfurther responds to activation of a link by a user of the displayapparatus by using the local copy specification to examine locationinformation in the activated link to determine whether there is alocally-stored copy of the hypertext item specified by the locationinformation and if there is, by fetching the local copy instead of theremotely-located original.